Comparing A Rose For Emily And The Yellow Wallpaper
Professor Madigan
English 1C
3 April 2010
Yellow Roses
William Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are two short stories both incorporate qualities of similarities and differences. Both of the short stories are about how and why a woman changed from loneliness to craziness. Also, these two short stories both are the product of male influences, oftentimes negative ones and much of their rage is intermixed with occasional feelings of love. These women are forced into loneliness only because of the era they are woman. Emily’s father rejects all of her likely mates; the husband of Gilman’s narrator isolates her from stimulation of any kind. Eventually, Emily is an unsocial trapped in a deprecated …show more content…
home, and the narrator in Gilman’s story is an illusion woman confined to her bedroom. These stories both entail numerous similarities in the setting of their house and theme of there is not a black and white when it comes to emotion.
The setting of “the Yellow Wallpaper” is a colonial mansion. The narrator and her husband move into a house for the summer which the narrator says looks like, according to Gilman 274, “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate.” The narrator likes the house and thinks is a good place to recover from her nervous condition. Her husband confines her to a bedroom so that her health will improve. She does not like this room. The bedroom she is confined to use to be a nursery, playroom, and gymnasium. The narrator’s nervous condition becomes worse to the point of insanity due to her isolation in the bedroom, which is covered with ugly, yellow wallpaper. Though the narrator suspects the house to be haunted as she wonders, according to Gilman 274, “…why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” Most of the story, however, takes place inside of the house, in the room with the yellow wallpaper. In contrast, the setting in “A Rose for Emily” starts in the Civil War Era. The setting is not in chronological order. The small town of Jefferson is an important part of the setting. Emily’s family lived in this town for many generations. The town did not like Emily’s family, because her family is private. Emily could not escape her family image. The town of Jefferson only saw her as a Grierson. When Emily’s father died the town helped Emily by not making her pay tax, so she would be financially secure. The setting that Emily was in would not allow Emily to change, so she was forced to act just like her family and be snobbish to the townspeople.
These two female characters in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily” are all divided between love and hate and there doesn’t seem to be a gray area.
Perhaps that is what makes these stories so compelling, that it’s hard to determine emotion with any certainty. One things that is clear is the way male has power and repression has an effect on these black and forth feelings of love and hate. All of these two female main characters seem to want to love the men that had so much control over them, but in the end, they snap under big emotional weight of this male repression. The male domination, which leads to female repression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is while at heart, still the same in the basic terms that a woman’s emotions are suppress until a breaking point, there are a few key differences. Therefore, her feelings of love and hate can’t be expressed naturally and instead of seeing her own loves and hates, she puts her emotions onto the woman in the wallpaper. Therefore, her feelings of love and hate can’t be expressed naturally and instead of seeing her own loves and hates, she puts her emotions onto the woman in the wallpaper. In terms of this suggestion about oppression, in “A Rose for Emily”, there is yet another example of a woman whose feelings of love and hate are suppressed due to male influences. In “A Rose for Emily”, the male is represented as very powerful and dominating and it’s her father. There is an interesting description of him next to Emily that the narration describes. According to Faulkner 483, “Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door”. This imagery of the father with the whip next to a breakable Emily against a white background tends to make one see the domination nature of their relationship better than any long passages of their conversations ever could. Emily’s an
unsocial behavior and inability to handle her father’s death and another man coming into her world is proof that her emotions of love and hate were so intermixed that she didn’t know how to react when she was only supposed to feel one or the other.
Both of these short stories enclose similar moral truth connected within both the William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” are two short stories both of similarities. Also, both stories focus on a woman’s troubles near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. William Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" show the influences of society on the woman who is the main character in each story. It is just as possible to look at gender roles as they apply to feelings of love and hate by looking at “A Rose for Emily” in comparison with “The Yellow Wallpaper” as well because both female characters seem to be a little crazy. Neither of them have a clear place in society nor is this because they are the victims of male domination. Both Emily and the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” try to balance their feelings of love and hate but in the end, these attempts fail and they snap. This ultimate result of male domination of female emotions is the reason for all of these main characters downfalls and it almost seems that there three stories could have all been in the same section under either men and women or love and hate.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William, “A Rose for Emily.” Literature and Ourselves. Ed. I. Henderson, Gloria
Mason, II. Higgins, Anna, III. Day, William, IV. Waller, Sandra Stevenson. NYC, 2006
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature and Ourselves. Ed. I. Henderson,
Gloria Mason, II. Higgins, Anna, III. Day, William, IV. Waller, Sandra Stevenson. NYC, 2006
English 1C
3 April 2010
Yellow Roses
William Faulkner’s “A rose for Emily” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” are two short stories both incorporate qualities of similarities and differences. Both of the short stories are about how and why a woman changed from loneliness to craziness. Also, these two short stories both are the product of male influences, oftentimes negative ones and much of their rage is intermixed with occasional feelings of love. These women are forced into loneliness only because of the era they are woman. Emily’s father rejects all of her likely mates; the husband of Gilman’s narrator isolates her from stimulation of any kind. Eventually, Emily is an unsocial trapped in a deprecated …show more content…
home, and the narrator in Gilman’s story is an illusion woman confined to her bedroom. These stories both entail numerous similarities in the setting of their house and theme of there is not a black and white when it comes to emotion.
The setting of “the Yellow Wallpaper” is a colonial mansion. The narrator and her husband move into a house for the summer which the narrator says looks like, according to Gilman 274, “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate.” The narrator likes the house and thinks is a good place to recover from her nervous condition. Her husband confines her to a bedroom so that her health will improve. She does not like this room. The bedroom she is confined to use to be a nursery, playroom, and gymnasium. The narrator’s nervous condition becomes worse to the point of insanity due to her isolation in the bedroom, which is covered with ugly, yellow wallpaper. Though the narrator suspects the house to be haunted as she wonders, according to Gilman 274, “…why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?” Most of the story, however, takes place inside of the house, in the room with the yellow wallpaper. In contrast, the setting in “A Rose for Emily” starts in the Civil War Era. The setting is not in chronological order. The small town of Jefferson is an important part of the setting. Emily’s family lived in this town for many generations. The town did not like Emily’s family, because her family is private. Emily could not escape her family image. The town of Jefferson only saw her as a Grierson. When Emily’s father died the town helped Emily by not making her pay tax, so she would be financially secure. The setting that Emily was in would not allow Emily to change, so she was forced to act just like her family and be snobbish to the townspeople.
These two female characters in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Rose for Emily” are all divided between love and hate and there doesn’t seem to be a gray area.
Perhaps that is what makes these stories so compelling, that it’s hard to determine emotion with any certainty. One things that is clear is the way male has power and repression has an effect on these black and forth feelings of love and hate. All of these two female main characters seem to want to love the men that had so much control over them, but in the end, they snap under big emotional weight of this male repression. The male domination, which leads to female repression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, is while at heart, still the same in the basic terms that a woman’s emotions are suppress until a breaking point, there are a few key differences. Therefore, her feelings of love and hate can’t be expressed naturally and instead of seeing her own loves and hates, she puts her emotions onto the woman in the wallpaper. Therefore, her feelings of love and hate can’t be expressed naturally and instead of seeing her own loves and hates, she puts her emotions onto the woman in the wallpaper. In terms of this suggestion about oppression, in “A Rose for Emily”, there is yet another example of a woman whose feelings of love and hate are suppressed due to male influences. In “A Rose for Emily”, the male is represented as very powerful and dominating and it’s her father. There is an interesting description of him next to Emily that the narration describes. According to Faulkner 483, “Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door”. This imagery of the father with the whip next to a breakable Emily against a white background tends to make one see the domination nature of their relationship better than any long passages of their conversations ever could. Emily’s an
unsocial behavior and inability to handle her father’s death and another man coming into her world is proof that her emotions of love and hate were so intermixed that she didn’t know how to react when she was only supposed to feel one or the other.
Both of these short stories enclose similar moral truth connected within both the William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” are two short stories both of similarities. Also, both stories focus on a woman’s troubles near the turn of the 19th century. This era is especially interesting because it is a time in modern society when women were still treated as second class citizens. William Faulkner 's "A Rose for Emily" and Charlotte Perkins Gilman 's "The Yellow Wallpaper" show the influences of society on the woman who is the main character in each story. It is just as possible to look at gender roles as they apply to feelings of love and hate by looking at “A Rose for Emily” in comparison with “The Yellow Wallpaper” as well because both female characters seem to be a little crazy. Neither of them have a clear place in society nor is this because they are the victims of male domination. Both Emily and the woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper” try to balance their feelings of love and hate but in the end, these attempts fail and they snap. This ultimate result of male domination of female emotions is the reason for all of these main characters downfalls and it almost seems that there three stories could have all been in the same section under either men and women or love and hate.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William, “A Rose for Emily.” Literature and Ourselves. Ed. I. Henderson, Gloria
Mason, II. Higgins, Anna, III. Day, William, IV. Waller, Sandra Stevenson. NYC, 2006
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Literature and Ourselves. Ed. I. Henderson,
Gloria Mason, II. Higgins, Anna, III. Day, William, IV. Waller, Sandra Stevenson. NYC, 2006